Fangirling Chinese Novels

Together Forever (至此终年) — Chapter 6.4

A long chapter. Now that Gu Pingsheng’s sorted things out in his mind, he’s actually not that slow in progressing their relationship. But unfortunately, Tong Yan has to first deal with Shen Yao’s good intentions but terrible results.

Chapter 6.4 – Quietly Advancing and Retreating (4)

Her fingers held between them the mobile phone that had already grown dim, and she unconsciously slid them over the screen and keys. Because her electric blanket had been heating it, her phone was a little hot, like this row of words that was silently burning into her heart.

After a long while, she at last began to type out a text in response.

But she had only just inputted the word, “I” and then unexpectedly, her bed began to shake. Shen Yao had crawled up onto it again. “This won’t do. I forgot my electric blanket again this week. Tonight, the two of us will squeeze together and share a bed, okay?”

Tong Yan started in alarm and ended up sending off the text message as it was …

“Go over to Xiaoru’s bed to sleep. Her bed has an electric blanket on it.”

“No. I’m so hyped up I can’t sleep.” Shen Yao slipped under the blankets, and like an octopus, she clung onto Tong Yan. “Who sent you that text just now? I seem to remember I saw that sentence in some movie? That person’s so romantic.”

With a bunch of “mm-s” and “ah-s,” Tong Yan managed to sidestep this subject.

As a result, it was not until early the following morning when Tong Yan awoke that she finally had the chance to clarify that very weird text message she had sent. Shen Yao was deep in slumber with her back facing her. Quietly turning onto her side, Tong Yan pulled out her mobile phone from under her pillow.

After quite some time had passed, she finally continued typing: I may not have passed my CET-6 yet, but I can still understand the meaning of that sentence.

She had just sat up to go get some clothes when her mobile phone vibrated again.

“Who is it? So early …” Shen Yao rolled over and instinctively felt around for her phone.

“It’s my phone, not yours.”

While saying this, Tong Yan glanced at her inbox: I just stepped off the campus shuttle. Interested in joining me for breakfast? TK

He did not have any classes to teach today. Why did he come to the school? Wearing a thick down jacket, Tong Yan pondered on this while she walked towards the dining hall on the west end of campus. Soon, she saw Gu Pingsheng standing alone by the campus shuttle stop, his two hands in his pants pockets, reading the newspaper that was pinned up on the news board.

It was eight o’clock, the time the first class of the day started. Those who did not have class during this period were mostly still sleeping in. This time of the day was when there were the least people out on the campus grounds.

She was about to walk up to him, but at that moment, a student happened to come over to change out the newspaper on the news board. The person unlocked the glass covering over the board while, at the same time, sneaking glances at Gu Pingsheng. Feeling guilty, as if she was caught doing something bad, Tong Yan stayed standing at a distance not too far away until the student had finished changing out all sixteen of the display panels. And the entire time, Gu Pingsheng had stared at the newspaper in the first panel and had not moved his eyes away. After the student changing the newspapers had left and walked far away, she finally stepped up behind Gu Pingsheng.

It was a news article on a medical mishap.

Before she could read through it in detail, Gu Pingsheng had already noticed her presence. “What would you like to eat?”

Tong Yan thought for a moment. “Just go to the dining hall. It has everything.” She quickly added, “Let’s go to the west dining hall.”

The east and south dining halls were both near many teaching buildings. There would be too many students in those ones.

When the two of them arrived at the dining hall, many students who were late were dashing hastily out the door with a bun or something between their teeth. Tong Yan looked over at the row of windows. Feeling that it would be inappropriate to send Gu Pingsheng to personally buy pan-fried pork buns, savoury tofu pudding, or other things along those lines, she selected a remote table beside a window and asked him, “Teacher Gu, what are you used to eating? I’m more familiar with how it works here, so I’ll be able to buy it faster.”

In a relaxed tone, he answered, “Whatever you like to eat, just buy me the same.” He was relaxed, but Tong Yan was not able to relax.

In fact, there really was nothing novel or unique to eat in the university dining hall, but in order to take into consideration that there were students from both the northern and southern parts of the country, there was a great variety of foods. In the end, she still simply bought the few most common ones – sweet ones and salty ones, healthy ones and unhealthy ones …

Looking at those plates of varied sizes in front of him, Gu Pingsheng instantly chuckled, “Is it, after we’re done eating all of these, we won’t need to have lunch?”

Sheepishly, she grinned, “I just wanted to let you have a taste of everything.”

“I don’t like wasting food.”

After he said this, he seemed to sense Tong Yan’s discomfiture, and in an unhurried voice, he added an explanation. “When I was younger, I was actually particularly wasteful with food. If I didn’t like to eat it or if I didn’t feel like eating, I wouldn’t force myself. Later on, I saw lots of people who wished to eat but didn’t have the money to, as well as people who had lost the physical ability to eat, and I learned to not waste food anymore.”

When he finished speaking, he wiped his hands with a moist towelette, and then after handing the package to her, he began quietly eating his breakfast.

After hearing a person who seemed almost perfect in terms of moral character say these words, her little bit of nervousness suddenly faded.

“I was the same.” She took a bite of pan-fried scallion pancake. “In primary school, I was especially picky. Breakfast every morning was eggs cooked in milk, but later, I had eaten it so much that I really didn’t want to have it anymore. And so oftentimes, while Grandmother wasn’t looking, I’d pour the milk into the toilet.”

“But,” she smiled, “I wasn’t like you where you saw a lot of things of the world. I just grew up and naturally, became more mature.”

Now, every time she thought of how she used to wrack her brain to try to find ways to get away from Grandmother, she would feel awful.

With a spoon, Gu Pingsheng took bite after bite of his savoury tofu pudding.

Earlier, when she had bought this one, she had specifically instructed the server to put extra dried shrimp in it, and now, seeing that he seemed to very much enjoy eating it, she fell into an unexplainably good mood.

The sun was also shining brightly today and gave a nice, warm feeling when it landed on people’s bodies.

Only when she saw him raise his head did she instinctively shift her eyes away. In her peripheral vision, she could see him looking at her.

She had thought he would soon move his gaze from her, but he did not. Therefore, she had no choice but to hold on like this for a little while longer before eventually pretending that she had not seen anything. Turning back to him, she asked. “Taste good? I’ve always felt that the tofu pudding from the school’s dining hall has a very authentic, local flavor.”

“It tastes very good.” Amusedly, he exposed her by saying, “You like to look at people using your peripheral vision, don’t you?”

Tong Yan straightaway denied, “No, I don’t.”

But the red glow that instantly flooded her cheeks exposed her fib.

“When I was a little, I had peripheral vision phobia.” He was taking great pleasure in his eating as he casually chatted with her. “I would always feel that I was doing things poorly and people were looking at me because of that. For a long period of time, I would carefully observe the people in my peripheral vision, and I’d have problems concentrating.”

Tong Yan looked at him in shock. “Peripheral vision phobia? Now that you mention it, I seem … to have had it when I was a kid, too.”

Always unable to have a settled mind while doing anything and unable to control herself from observing with her peripheral vision the people around her.

Gu Pingsheng brought out his moist towelettes again and handed them to her. “Don’t worry. Lots of people have had it during their adolescent years. It’s often caused by insecurity and caring too much about what other people may think.”

He spoke about this in a completely unconcerned manner. Tong Yan pulled out a moist towelette and began to wipe her mouth and hands thoroughly.

So, he also had times when he was insecure. But he came from a very good, well-off family, and he was so talented and outstanding himself. He should have been that type of person who had a great sense of self-pride. Why would he be insecure? Tong Yan set her towelette down on the tray and watched him wipe his hands.

Teacher Gu … Gu Pingsheng, Teacher Gu …

Her face suddenly began to heat up slightly, and as a result, she propped her chin on her hand and once again turned to look out the window. There, in that position where he could not see her from his angle, the corner of her lips curled upwards.

After a little while, she finally asked him, “Teacher Gu, why are you here today?”

He finished off the remainder of his tofu pudding and then continued on eating, picking up a pan-fried pork bun with his chopsticks and dabbing it in some vinegar. “I was worried about you, that there might be something wrong, so I came here directly.”

Breakfast time had passed, and there were not many people inside the dining hall anymore. The two of them chatted aimlessly until, eventually, he was the one who glanced at his watch, said that he still had some matters to attend to that morning, and ended this simple breakfast.

Tong Yan walked with him alongside the dining hall building for quite a long ways until she at last came to a stop. “I want to go check something out in the library.”

In reality, she really wanted to walk with him all the way to the campus shuttle stop, but she was worried that her classmates would see them.

He did not say much to this, and only as she was turning away did he seem to suddenly remember something. “Next Friday is the CET-6 exam?”

He actually did not need to ask so far ahead of time about next week. After all, there were three Commercial Arbitration classes in between.

“What time does it end?”

“It starts at 3:00 in the afternoon and finishes at 5:30.”

After answering the question, she remembered what that particular day was: Christmas Eve. This year’s scheduled time for the CET-4 and 6 examinations … very much deserved to incur the wrath of gods and men.

“You will have missed the times that the campus shuttles run, then.” He said to her, “When you’re finished your exam, take a cab to come find me. I’ll reimburse you for it, how about that?”

She paused in surprise but then quickly said, “It’s no big deal. I still have my living expense money. Plus, last time, you…”

“It’s just for that day,” he smiled. “I actually wanted to drive over to pick you up, but traffic will likely be very bad. If I come over to the campus first and then drive back out to the core of the city, it may end up being very late before we get there.”

Just for that day … Tong Yan finally nodded. “Alright. After I’m done and out from the exam, I’ll send you a text.”

Could this be considered … their first date?

Tong Yan opened Shen Yao’s computer and searched “peripheral vision phobia” on Baidu[1]. In a very focused and serious manner, she began to read through the various descriptions and explanations.

All of a sudden, there was a slap on her shoulder.

“What are you looking at?” Shen Yao swept her eyes across the computer screen. “You switched over to study psychology?”

Jumping in surprise, Tong Yan twisted her head to the side to look at Shen Yao. “It’s Sunday today. How come you haven’t gone home?”

The look in Shen Yao’s eyes could definitely kill someone. “Don’t you remember, I already arranged with you that next week, I’m going with you to see dear Cheng Yu?”

“Christmas, right? But, isn’t that next weekend?”

“I’m pumped, okay? This week, I’m not going to go home.”

……

Tong Yan had thought that after she woke up, she would snap out of it herself. But now, seeing her genuinely besotted expression, she finally understood that Shen Yao was utterly serious. Hence, the anxious mood that had been brewing in her just moments ago completely dissolved away with Shen Yao’s intrusion.

Unable to prevail over Shen Yao’s wheedling and pestering, she helped her empty out her entire wardrobe and kept her company as she tried on each piece of clothing, arranging them again and again into different outfits …

She had to continually provide all sorts of opinions until, eventually, she was thirsty from all her talking.

She poured a cup of water and held it between her palms.

Many years later, Tong Yan would still remember this day.

On that cold winter day inside their dormitory room, her good friend, who had bafflingly fallen in love with a voice, was shivering incessantly as she changed into all sorts of outfits and freely imagined the upcoming first meeting. But as for herself, she simply held that cup of hot water in her hands and breathed in the hot, steamy air rising up out of it, quietly concealing in the deepest reaches those feelings of love she had just discovered.

Teacher Gu. Gu Pingsheng.

To her, the meaning behind those had started to evolve to something different.

For the entire week, he carried out his lectures for Commercial Arbitration as normal.

The maddening part was, she spent more than half of the time taking notes and did not dare at all to lift her head and meet his gaze. In the end, she even glumly started to grumble silently, why had they set the day of their date so far ahead of time?

On the day of the examination, she finished writing her test half an hour earlier than the set end time.

After repeatedly checking over her multiple choice answer sheet and essay, she did the unprecedented by handing in her test paper early. She had just walked out of the examination room and turned on her mobile phone when she saw a countless number of text messages flood in. They were all from Shen Yao.

“Oh god! I was sleeping when Cheng Yu showed up downstairs of our dorm. Oh god! His looks totally appeal to me.”

“I can’t take it. The way he talks is so cute. I’m going to lose my mind.”

“How come you’re still not done your test?”

“Hurry up, hurry up. I’m waiting for you at Remembrance of Roots Lake, on that open field next to the library.”

“Tong Yan … hurry.”

Uncertain whether to laugh or cry, Tong Yan deleted each message one at a time, clearing out some space in her inbox. The last message she received, however, left her somewhat mystified: Cheng Yu and I have prepared a huge surprise for you.

Surprise? She and Cheng Yu? They didn’t need to progress their relationship that quickly, did they?

Following the walkway beside the lake until she reached the front entrance of the library, she saw Shen Yao beaming and talking to two boys. She and Cheng Yu had been high school classmates for three years, so naturally, he was easy to identify. That other slender, tall figure, though, caused her footsteps to come to a halt.

At the time, when she had been accepted to come here to Shanghai, she had felt that 1400 kilometres was a great distance and would allow her to temporarily be far away from her parents and Lu Bei.

So then, how was it that he had suddenly showed up here on the campus of her university?

She stared at him as if he was a hallucination.

Because of the lack of any explanation from Cheng Yu, Shen Yao was completely regarding Lu Bei as Tong Yan’s real boyfriend and was being ridiculously warm and friendly to him. Tong Yan was unable to find an opportunity to talk to him, so when Shen Yao suggested that they all head into the city core together, she could only intentionally walk a little slower with Lu Bei. Shen Yao and Cheng Yu hit it off straightaway and did not seem to pay attention to them anymore. Tong Yan at last found her chance. “This time, you’re here … with Fang Yunyun to have some fun together in Shanghai?”

Carrying a very large paper bag in his hand, Lu Bei walked side by side with her but did not give any response to her deliberate reminder.

There was a long period of silence before he finally said, “Tong Tong, I’ve worked really hard over this last year. I had actually wanted to tell you this in Beijing during the National Day holiday. I’ve improved my student records[2], and this year, I’m in first year at CUPL [China University of Political Science and Law]. Wait for me, until I graduate from university, okay?”

Though she did not speak, she still was surprised by this.

He, the one who had always hated studying, had finally come around? But he had skipped three years of high school. Would he really be able to finish university?

Seeing that she had not spoken, he handed the paper bag to her. “They all say that Shanghai doesn’t have interior centralized heating, so it’s really cold. I bought a down jacket and a cashmere blanket for you.”

She did not take it from him.

“Tong Tong.” He called her name.

Shen Yao all of a sudden turned around and grinned, “You guys having a quarrel? That’s not something that can be made okay by just giving some random gift. Say some nice, flattering words. I’ll take all of you to Xintiandi [New World district][3] to go drinking, my treat. We’ll get Tong Yan drunk and then everything will be easy to take care of.”

It was wintertime in late December. The sky had already grown completely dark.

The street lamps happened to turn on right at that moment, illuminating Shen Yao’s beaming face and also casting their shadows beside each of them. Tong Yan adamantly refused to accept the gift, and right when they were both refusing to yield, an alert abruptly sounded out from her mobile phone.

For a moment, she stared blankly, before suddenly remembering her promise to Gu Pingsheng.

Sure enough, after she pulled out her mobile phone to check the time, she saw it was already 5:40 pm: Did your exam go well? TK

[1] 百度 Baidu.com is a Chinese web services company, similar to Google, with services such as a search engine, images, etc.

[2] 学籍档案 “xue ji dang an.” Student records for students in China contain information such as grades, rewards and punishments received during your entire duration as a student, the ideologies the student expressed, and just an overall assessment. Lu Bei was a rebel in high school, so he would have had poor grades and assessments of him. For him to have changed his student record means he probably did something to upgrade his grades and improve his overall performance.

[3] 新天地. Literally, this means “New Heaven and Earth,” although this place is often referred to by its name in pinyin, Xintiandi or by the English name, New World district. Xintiandi is a pedestrian only shopping and entertainment district in Shanghai. The area is very affluent and bustling and is often listed as a “must visit” location for visitors.

Additional Comments:

I just had to gush over how sweet Gu Pingsheng is. Tong Yan’s reply to his text from the previous chapter where he had stated he had waited for her and cherished her, was cut off. This worried him enough that he came to the school first thing in the morning to make sure she was okay. ❤

Completed:
1 of 1 Prologue
19 of 66 Main story segments
0 of 3 Epilogue segments

Really loving TK and Tong Yan. BUT I have to say Shen Yao really bothers me here, cuz I feel like she’s really failing as a friend. Like, she’s ignorant of the situation like we kind of are, and she isn’t aware that anything’s wrong, but if I were TY, I’d really resent Shen Yao in that moment for putting me in a situation like that. Clearly, TY is unnatural and out of sorts with Cheng Yu and Lu Bei, but as a friend Shen Yao’s living in her own world, not noticing anything, and continually pushing and coercing TY into agreements that are obviously because she wants more time with Cheng Yu. Even if TY wasn’t for some reason out of sorts with Lu Bei, it’s still unreasonable for Shen Yao to manipulate TY like that. I mean, I’m ranting now, but I don’t actually hate Shen Yao or anything. I’m just frustrated with her.

Indeed, if I were Tong Yan, I'd be more than annoyed with Shen Yao. But, while I understand Tong Yan’s trait where she can’t say no to her friends (*sigh* I have troubles saying no, too), she is even more extreme than me. Tong Yan places great value on friendship, to the point that she simply cannot refuse her friend. I think in a couple updates, you'll hear Tong Yan explain why, but you can see it from the way she dealt with Shen Yao. Annoying as Shen Yao was, I really can't blame her for expecting Tong Yan to be around for her meet up with Cheng Yu. On the phone with him, Tong Yan had already flatly declined meeting Cheng Yu over Christmas, but when Shen Yao asked if she could bring her along to meet him during Christmas, she did not refuse and even implicitly consented (based on their conversation when Shen Yao was trying on outfits). And still, she did not say anything and tell Shen Yao she couldn't make it after she made her date with Gu Pingsheng for the same day.

The whole situation with Lu Bei was … wrong and awkward. Shen Yao's happy-go-lucky personality also makes her not very astute about her surrounding environment, it would seem. While it was just a dumb mistake, the only thing you can say about it is, she had actually done it with kind intentions. And as you said, it is terribly frustrating.

Ah, but character flaws are what make this novel feel "real." Shen Yao has other qualities that make her a good friend for Tong Yan. 🙂

LOL. For the introvert that I am, yes, I agree I wouldn’t want to be around such a noisy person. But actually, having a noisy close friend actually works out well for quiet people because he/she does the talking for you and you don’t have to say anything. 😜

Yup. Here, she is inconsiderate because she is unobservant. 😦 She’s actually just completely unaware. She’s the type of person that you have to state point blank to her, “This situation makes me uncomfortable,” and then she will bend over backward to help you, her friend. But she will never clue in herself. A personality flaw. This is not her best moment. She has redeeming moments later, so maybe you’ll change your mind. 😉

While I don’t agree with Lu Bei, as a married man, coming to find Tong Yan, I do feel sad for him that his heart still belongs to Tong Yan, but they have been forced apart. Regardless of whether you agree with his actions, you can understand the longing he must have and how hard it must be for him to be forced to be with a woman you don’t like.

The next update doesn’t have the two together, but I like it because we can understand things more from Gu Pingsheng’s perspective and what was his draw to Tong Yan. But I think you will VERY MUCH like the two updates after that.

Much that i like the progress with GPS, i cant help but feed sad for LBY. He seem to be still very much in love with TY.

Hoju, when TY left for Shanghai, was she still in love LB? I mean before his “forced” marriage to his wife.. I isbecause of this…

(At the time when she had been accepted to come here to Shanghai, she had felt that 1400 kilometres was a great distance and would allow her to temporarily be far away from her parents and Lu Bei.).. i am a bit confused…

Frankly speaking I don’t feel sorry for LB. As was saying before he was forced to marry his wife for whatever reason and he is not in the position to ask TY to wait for him just because he got accepted into a University. He is married now, he should move on with his wife and leave TY alone. It is bad enough TY got hurt the first time and why should she get hurt again just because LB changes his mind if or when he graduate from University in the near future.

Shen Yao, I agree that she tend to live in her own selfish world always wanted to know who sent TY text msgs. Invaded in TY’s personal space just because she is so called in love with Cheng Yu.

TY has to speak her mind and put her foot down with people who constantly walked over her life and her space no matter how well thought of others.

Anyway, I have my rant…thank you very much Hoju for a long chapter and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. 😀

It could be the mother in me because I tell my kids all the time, “I understand you were feeling _______ and you did _______, I’m really sorry that you were so upset but that action is not acceptable.” Hence, I really do empathize with Lu Bei. We know that he did not want to break up with Tong Yan, we know he is with someone (Fang Yunyun) that he does not like now, and we know he still has feelings for Tong Yan. How awful that must be to love someone but, for whatever reason it may be, to have to be with someone else not of your choosing. It is apparent his feelings for Tong Yan still run strong, and you do feel for him and the hurt he must be feeling.

However, that does not mean I agree with what he’s doing. To me, it is unacceptable that he, as a married man, is coming to try and rekindle an old flame while he still has a wife at home. And, putting my personal morals aside, he is inconsiderate of Tong Yan’s morals on this type of issue. Tong Yan has made it clear to him that because he is a married man, she will not have any sort of relationship with him. “Regardless of the reason why their chance to be together had slipped by them, she had a very strong sense of and demand for pureness of morals, and she would never allow herself to do anything that might breakup someone’s home and marriage.” (chapter 2.3) In asking Tong Yan to wait for him, a married man, he is basically asking her to set aside her morals. And, considering that even now, without any affirmation from Tong Yan, he is already willing to come all the way to Shanghai for her, I am absolutely certain that if she said yes, she would wait, he would try to progress their relationship back into a romantic one and not keep it purely as friendship during that period. If he could take a step back and consider things from Tong Yan’s perspective, he would sort out his feelings and make the conscious decision to get a divorce before dragging Tong Yan into the mess. I truly don’t advocate divorce, but at least that way, everything would be strictly his decision and between him and his wife, Fang Yunyun, and it would have nothing to do with Tong Yan.

Shen Yao. LOL. I agree with everyone that she was annoying with the Lu Bei situation. Actually, with the part about reading Tong Yan’s text, I’m neutral on it. Tong Yan was obviously trying to hide her phone, so yes, she didn’t want Shen Yao to see, but as you’ve noted yourself, Yan Yan just isn’t firm enough with her friends. You know that tone that you take with your friends that sometimes, they think you’re still playing around with them and it wouldn’t really be a big deal if they didn’t do what you said? Plus, Shen Yao is just happy-go-lucky, is not perceptive, and just doesn’t assess.

As for Tong Yan, YES! Character flaw! Tong Yan actually isn’t a weak character, for she certainly will stand back up when life knocks her down, but when it comes to relationships, she just does not know how to say no. In some ways, I can relate, but even I would have said something to Shen Yao. This is actually a flaw that Tong Yan acknowledges in herself, and she will talk about it in a couple updates.

This is by deduction only. You will read more about the details of the situation that lead to their break-up later in the novel, but we know already that she and Lu Bei were together through high school, and right before she left for Shanghai to start university, there was the scene where Lu Bei sobbed uncontrollably at the bus stop, begging her not to go. Tong Yan seems to be a very sentimental person who treasures genuineness. At the start of university, she would have broken up with Lu Bei not long ago, so I believe, yes, her heart had stilled loved him at the time. I won’t talk about if that has evolved and if so, what it has evolved to because that might be a spoiler, but it is apparent that, regardless of what her feelings for Lu Bei are now, there is still a wound over her heart.

I hope by the time this arc ends, all questions regarding LB is already answered.

I have a friend who broke up with her long time boyfriend because he wants to stop from college just to relax and play. Not even when he started schooling again after a sem. I’m wondering if they also broke up over something similar…

I’m digging through my mind. I really don’t think of this story in terms of distinctive arcs, so I don’t know if you’ll be satisfied at the pacing. I can say that, yes, eventually all questions regarding Lu Bei will be answered.

Every relationship is so different, and it’s definitely something where two people have to be absolutely in sync when it comes to the big things, like morals, long term goals, etc. Hope your friend in the end found the person who was right for her.

Tong Yan is actually quite simple. You’ve probably noticed the practical aspect of her, that she knows that she has to make money to support her grandmother, but, based on her average grades, having a highly successful career and climbing up in society is not all-consuming for her. She wants deep, heartfelt relationships (and that’s why I think she let’s Shen Yao get her way, despite it sometimes causing problems, because she appreciates the sincerity of that relationship). In high school, Lu Bei was a terrible student with no aspirations but that did not bother her because he was willing to show his love by bringing noodles to her on a cold winter day.

Gah, so vague what I’m saying because I don’t want to give away any spoilers.

No kidding! The author is such a foodie. I swear, she mentions food way more times in her novels than most other authors. I always struggle with describing traditional Chinese dishes in English, so I just attach a photo. But that makes me starving whenever I’m searching up pics of this stuff. LOL Glad I’m sharing the suffering. :p

Yes, your instinct is correct. There is much to be revealed about Gu Pingsheng. But, Tong Yan has much to tell him, too, so it’s mutual.

Unfortunately, there’s no bullying in this relationship. But trust me, once you see it full blown, you won’t want bullying. It’s a beautiful one of mutual respect. Two flawed people coming together and loving and supporting one another. ❤

hey bro i m really happy n thankful as i m able to read the chinese novel even though i an unable to read chinese so this not i wantes to ask u as i want to learn chinese is there a source where they start from basic slowly as i m a slow learner 😛 but i wnt to read a lot more chinese novel so pls guide me buddy n on ther note this is my first comment here so dont mind the length pls….. 😛

I’m absolutely in no position to provide expert advice. If you speak a Chinese, you can try watching Chinese dramas that you like and follow along with the subtitles. You’ll be surprised how fast you can pick up characters that way because you’ll notice many come up over and over again. If you don’t speak, then I’m at a bit of a loss …

Thanks for the chapter. I really hope she ditches them in the next chapter and doesn’t get stuck cancelling her date. Then again, although she’s interested in Gu Pingsheng, it doesn’t mean she’s properly over Lu Bei. Maybe she could get some closure here?

Shen Yao is deeply annoying. She irritated me from the climbing into bed thing and poking her nose at other people’s texts. She’s totally oblivious to things around her and I can imagine her being the type of person who upsets and hurts people and never even notices. That other people might not agree with her doesn’t seem to occur to her.

Tong Yan is clearly working on cutting off her feelings for Lu Bei, who is now married. I personally think she has closure, but there’s some things that, the feelings may have been worked out but there will still be a scar. It’s not necessarily against him personally, but it was just a bad situation.

“She’s totally oblivious to things around her and I can imagine her being the type of person who upsets and hurts people and never even notices.” Yes, absolutely! And can be very annoying. But I don’t think that it stems from a me-and-my-world-are-the-most-important attitude and more from her lack of observation skills and inability to tune into other people’s feelings. I think she realizes that people can disagree wit her, but she will never be able to figure out when that might be herself. It needs to be plainly stated to her and if someone shows her what she’s doing wrong, then will she be capable of remorse.

Anyway, I, too, was miffed by Shen Yao here, but she will have redeeming moments later. I didn’t expect her to cause this little stir, though. I have written a little comment on her in my next post. (My little guy just woke up from his nap, so I need to cut this off here! Sorry!)